Removing Unnecessary and Counterproductive Restrictions on Access to Federal Lands

Key Points

• Trump is rescinding two executive orders from the 1970s that set limits on off-road vehicle use across federal lands. He argues these decades-old rules rely on vague standards that are hard for agencies to follow and end up blocking access for everyday Americans.
• The order says the old rules used hard-to-define environmental criteria like minimizing wildlife harassment and protecting scenic values, which created permit delays and made it harder to use public land for recreation, energy production, timber harvesting, and utility maintenance.
• Multiple federal agencies, including the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, are now directed to start rulemaking to rescind or revise regulations that were created under the old orders. This process will determine exactly how off-road vehicle access changes on the ground.
• The administration argues that existing federal laws like the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act already provide enough environmental protection, so the extra executive order criteria are unnecessary.